Former cop's addiction to prescription meds cost him his career

Peter Moore

PETERBOROUGH-- Peter Moore might as well have been shooting up heroin because he would do anything for his next pill.

The former Peterborough-Lakefield police officer's lowest point was buying prescription medications off a known drug dealer.

“The drug dealer was one of my informants,” Mr. Moore explains.

“That’s as bad as it gets.”

For nearly 20 years, Mr. Moore served and protected in multiple positions with both the Toronto Police and Peterborough police.

At just 17, he left his hometown Peterborough and became the youngest cadet ever on the Toronto force. He earned constable rank by the time he was 21 and spent seven years in the city before returning home in 1989 to protect the streets of Peterborough. Mr. Moore quickly moved up the ranks and was a detective constable before the age of 30. He also served on the tactical unit and worked in the intelligence branch.

“I just didn’t have a good career, I had an excellent career,” explains the now 49-year-old.

“I loved my badge and my career.”

In 1994, he left the police station, headed north on Water Street, and turned left on London Street when a car blew through the stop sign and hit Mr. Moore, spinning his car around before it hit a tree.

“It was a horrendous accident,” he recalls.

Before the accident, Mr. Moore was fairly healthy. He had suffered from back pain due to a hockey injury but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. After the crash, the back pain intensified. Despite the grueling pain, he returned to work two weeks later and was going through promotional interviews to become a sergeant.

“I was very driven after the accident but the pain just kept getting worse,” he explains.

He was prescribed two Percocets a day for the pain, but it quickly became 18 a day. Mr. Moore knew he was addicted and checked himself into the Homewood Health Centre, regarded as Canada’s top medical leader in addiction and mental health treatment, where he was treated with methadone. It was a hard pill for him to swallow.

He was a drug addict, no different from those he had arrested. He felt alone, but his story isn’t uncommon, according to Donna Rogers, executive director at Four Counties Addiction Services.

“Most individuals go down the path of opiate dependence related to some kind of illness or injury that causes them the need for legitimate pain medication,” she explains.

The misuse of prescription medication in Peterborough is major concern to police and social service organizations. A press conference was held last week at the police station, after police raided homes across the city as part of Project Blackrock, a four-month investigation focused on the illegal sale prescription medication.

“Because of tolerance and because of addiction that can take hold, we find that those individuals seek out other opportunities to supplement the medications they have in order to manage their pain and condition,” adds Mrs. Rogers.

Project Blackrock was launched in April due to the ongoing concern of the illicit use of prescription medication in our community. In 2013 there were 12 sudden deaths linked to the misuse of medications while another eight deaths have been reported to date this year. According to officials, several of those victims were like Mr. Moore and other productive members of society.

“What we do see is a very broad continuum of economical status,” says Mrs. Rogers.

“We see everything from folks that have been homeless to folks that are still continuing to work in high performance, high functioning kind of roles in our community.”

Mr. Moore’s methadone treatment lasted a week at Homewood, and he returned to work. However, he continued to abuse prescription medications because it was the only way he could continue to work and cope with the pain after two failed back surgeries. He found himself back at Homewood for 30 days, and tapered himself off Percocet after his completion of his treatment. Mr. Moore was completely off painkillers until his doctor was introduced to a new drug called OxyContin.

“We have a great new drug out and it is slow release and you're not going to get addicted,” Mr. Moore remembers being told.

“That was a bunch of nonsense.”

It didn’t take him long to figure out if he bit it, it the drug works a bit quicker. “It was an awful mess and I quickly spiraled once again,” he says.

Mr. Moore started running around the province for pills, and used his badge to his advantage, flashing it at doctors and drug dealers when he needed a refill.

“I totally abused my authority,” he says.

“I might as well have been taking heroin because I would have done anything to have it.”

His actions quickly caught up to him when a Lindsay doctor called the police, suspecting that Mr. Moore was double doctoring. His superiors at the police station showed up at his doorstep the next week, and took his badge so he couldn’t abuse it anymore.

“I opened the door and I just broke down,” recalls an emotional Mr. Moore.

“That was the deepest hole I could ever be in and that was the time when I said I need to get better.”

Mr. Moore was never fired or suspended from the police force for his actions. His double-doctoring charges were discharged but he resigned from the service in 1998.

“It broke my heart to leave,” he says.

Mr. Moore continued to suffer from back pain and continued to use methadone for a couple of years.

Long-term use of methadone is usual, according Mrs. Rogers. She says often there’s a physical condition around opiates while methadone allows people to move forward with a substitute therapy that allows them to manage their withdrawals and pain.

“People maintain healthy lives on methadone for a very extended periods of time,” she says.

Mr. Moore stayed on methadone until he started treatment at McMaster University with Dr. Norm Buckley, professor and chair, in the department of anesthesia.

“We need to be educated about what (help) is out there,” he says.

“If don’t deal with your pain, you won’t deal with your addiction. You have to deal with the pain so you don’t say 'I know a pill will deal with this.'”

“Locally we focus on how many clinics and I don’t know if we would have the same reaction if all those physicians were operating out of a single storefront,” says Mrs. Rogers.

She adds they are here because there’s a need for them.

With his addiction under control, Mr. Moore tried to get back into policing, but his past kept coming back to haunt him. He was almost hired twice, back in Toronto where his career started, and in Guelph, but police changed their minds when he opened up about his past addiction struggles. He took matters in his own hands and opened Stealth, a successful private investigations and court agent services.

“If I would have continued the way I was going, I would have been dead a long time ago,” he says.

“There is a silver lining but for a long time, it was complete hell.”

Todd Vandonk covers court and crime for myKawartha.com. He can be reached via email at tvandonk@mykawartha.com or follow him on Twitter @KawarthaVandonk